New Zealand rejects COVID-19 restrictions on Chinese travelers

ANKARA (AA) - New Zealand on Wednesday announced that Wellington will not impose any COVID-19-related restrictions against travelers from China and called the imposition of any restrictions “not required or justified.”

In a statement, the country’s COVID-19 Response Minister Dr. Ayesha Verrall said there is a minimal public health risk to New Zealand.

“In response, officials have done a public health risk assessment including working through scenarios of potential case numbers among travelers from China. This confirmed these visitors won’t contribute significantly to our Covid case numbers, meaning entry restrictions aren’t required or justified,” Verrall said.

Her statement came after several countries including the US, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, Morocco, Qatar, Canada, South Korea, and Taiwan announced requiring negative COVID-19 tests from travelers coming from China.

“There is a minimal public health risk to New Zealand. We know that BF7 is the prevalent variant in China and that it hasn’t caused significant outbreaks in other countries that, like New Zealand, have already been exposed to the BA5 variant. So public health measures are not required to protect New Zealanders,” Verrall added.

- Australia also imposes curbs on China travelers

Meanwhile, Australian authorities dismissed China's retaliation threats over mandatory COVID-19 testing.

"Now, there is a big wave of COVID in China at the moment, every country is still managing in one way or another this pandemic, and so they will take a decision based on their own considerations just as we have on our own considerations and a lot of countries around the world are imposing these kinds of tests," ABC News quoted Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers as saying.

Canberra also joined other countries to impose mandatory testing on travelers flying from China into Australia despite the country's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly’s advice not to introduce it, according to the broadcaster.

Beijing on Tuesday slammed various COVID-19 measures taken by several nations against travelers from China and warned of “countermeasures” against such steps.

“We firmly reject using COVID measures for political purposes and will take corresponding measures in response to varying situations via the principle of reciprocity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference in Beijing.

China is facing an explosive spike in infections after dumping its strict “zero-COVID" policy last month, following unrest and unprecedented protests in parts of the country.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid